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XCP-ng Infrastructure: A Comprehensive Guide

XCP-ng is an open-source hypervisor based on XenServer. It can be managed with its partner tool, Xen Orchestra (XO), providing a web interface for virtual machine management, backups, and more. This guide will walk you through the process of setting up XCP-ng, adding an ISO image storage repository, creating a new virtual machine, and managing your infrastructure.

Installation

Follow the official guide to install XCP-ng.

After installing XCP-ng, you'll want to set up Xen Orchestra. You can install Xen Orchestra Appliance (XOA) using the following command:

bash -c "$(wget -qO- https://xoa.io/deploy)"

For more information, refer to the XOA documentation.

Adding ISO Image Storage Repository

  1. Access XCP-ng via SSH

    ssh root@xcp-ng-server

  2. Create a Store Directory

    mkdir /var/opt/ISO_IMAGES

    You can then copy your ISO images to /var/opt/ISO_IMAGES or download them directly with the wget command.

    cd /var/opt/ISO_IMAGES
wget http://path-to-your-iso-image.iso

  3. Create Storage Repository

    xe sr-create name-label=ISO_IMAGES_LOCAL type=iso device-config:location=/var/opt/ISO_IMAGES device-config:legacy_mode=true content-type=iso

    You can list your XCP-ng storage repositories by running:

    xe sr-list

Creating a New Virtual Machine

  1. Deploy VM Template and Gather Information

    Search XCP-ng's database for a template name. In this case, we are looking for Ubuntu 16.04:

    xe template-list | grep name-label | grep -i 16.04

    Install a new virtual machine using the above template name:

    xe vm-install template="Ubuntu Xenial Xerus 16.04" new-name-label="Ubuntu 16.04.1 Desktop amd64"

    Save the output UUID and new VM name into a shell variable for later use.

    UUID=your-vm-uuid
NAME="Ubuntu 16.04.1 Desktop amd64"

  2. Configure Virtual Machine

    Attach an ISO image to the new VM device and make the VM boot from the ISO:

    xe vm-cd-add uuid=$UUID  cd-name=your-iso-image.iso device=1
xe vm-param-set HVM-boot-policy="BIOS order" uuid=$UUID

    Create a network interface:

    xe vif-create vm-uuid=$UUID network-uuid=your-network-uuid device=0

    Specify the amount of RAM to be used by this VM:

    xe vm-memory-limits-set dynamic-max=4000MiB dynamic-min=512MiB static-max=4000MiB static-min=512MiB uuid=$UUID

    Update the size of your virtual disk:

    xe vdi-resize uuid=your-vdi-uuid disk-size=15GiB

  3. Start Virtual Machine

    Now you are ready to start your new VM:

    xe vm-start uuid=$UUID

    At this stage, you can use a VNC client to connect to your new VM and perform the actual OS installation.

Local Console Commands

For operating on XCP-ng via the local console, you'll primarily use the xe command line interface. Below are the simplified commands for creating a VM and managing backups:

Create a Virtual Machine

The following is a basic example of creating a VM. First, get the UUID of the template you want to use:

xe template-list name-label=<template_name>

This will output a lot of information, including a UUID. Copy this UUID for the next step. You'll replace <template_uuid> with this UUID.

xe vm-install template=<template_uuid> new-name-label=<vm_name>

You'll need to replace <template_uuid> with the UUID from the previous step, and <vm_name> with the name you want for your VM.

VM Backup

For backing up a VM, there isn't a single xe command. However, you can use snapshot functionality as a basic form of backup. Below is an example of how to create and export a snapshot, which serves as a simple backup:

First, create a snapshot:

xe vm-snapshot vm=<vm_name> new-name-label=<snapshot_name>

This will create a snapshot of the VM <vm_name> and give it the name <snapshot_name>. It outputs a UUID for the snapshot, which you should copy.

Next, you'll convert the snapshot into a template:

xe template-param-set is-a-template=true ha-always-run=false uuid=<snapshot_uuid>

Replace <snapshot_uuid> with the UUID you received from the snapshot creation command.

Finally,

you can export the template to a file:

xe template-export template-uuid=<snapshot_uuid> filename=<backup_filename>

Replace <snapshot_uuid> with the UUID of the snapshot, and <backup_filename> with the desired name of your backup file. This will create a .xva file that serves as your backup.

Getting VM IP Address

To get the IP address of a VM running on your XenServer, execute the following command:

xe vm-list params=name-label,networks | grep -v "^$"